The Chief Operating Officer of the North Wales Community Health Council, Geoff Ryall Harvey comments on the recent decision for BCUHB to exit ‘Special Measures’ and become subject to ‘Targeted Intervention’ by Welsh Government
News Archive
NHS England: One-to-one nursing rule for patients in intensive care suspended
NHS England has announced the temporary suspension of the one-to-one rule for nursing staff treating critically ill Covid-19 patients. The relaxation has been agreed with the British Association of Critical Care Nurses and comes amid concern that intensive care units, which went into the pandemic already short of nurses, are being hit by staff being off sick or isolating.
COVID-19: 30,000 NHS staff off sick or self-isolating, warns NHS England chief
About 30,000 NHS staff are self-isolating or off work due to COVID-19, according to NHS England’s chief executive. Sir Simon Stevens said the numbers underlined the need to control the spread of COVID-19 to protect the health service and its capacity to offer care. ‘We’ve got about 30,000 NHS staff who are either off with coronavirus or having to self-isolate – that has an impact,’ he said.
RCN calls on government to ensure safe staffing levels for nurses this winter
The RCN has called on the government to ensure nurses can work safely this winter amid grave concerns about staffing shortages. Gaps in the workforce were putting enormous strain on nursing teams and placing intolerable pressure on senior nursing leaders as the NHS faces the twin challenges of winter and COVID-19, the RCN said. The college also warned that nurses could burn out and patient safety could be compromised if local staffing plans failed to consider the numbers of registered nurses available to deliver safe care.
Covid-19 spreading faster in England than ‘worst-case scenario’, documents showSAGE reports estimates of 85,000 deaths from Covid-19 over the course of winter. It follows latest figures which show there are around four times as many people catching Covid-19 than anticipated.
NHS Covid app failed to record potential exposures due to error
Error with the NHS Covid-19 app has left potentially thousands of people unaware that they were exposed to the coronavirus and needed to self-isolate. More than 19 million people have downloaded the English contact-tracing app since 24 September, but it has had the wrong settings to record whether these people were close enough to each other to transmit the coronavirus.
Watchdog investigating national rise in stillbirths
National review has been launched by regulators because of an increased number of stillbirths during the first wave of Covid-19. It comes as the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch is investigating 40 intrapartum stillbirths which took place between April and June this year, when the country experienced the first wave of Covid-19. During the same three months in the previous year, 24 stillbirths were reported.
Carers ‘worn out’ by virus and need services backUnpaid carers in Wales are “worn out” and need support services lost during the coronavirus pandemic to return. It comes as research by Carers Wales found that some unpaid carers are reporting 10 times the rate of mental health problems of other parents. The legal right for carers’ needs to be assessed was suspended as part of Covid-19 rules – and the Welsh Government is consulting on whether it should resume.
PM warns of virus deaths ‘twice as bad’ as spring
Prime Minister is expected to warn MPs in Parliament that Covid-19 deaths could be twice as high over the winter as they were in the first wave of the pandemic. Boris Johnson will make a statement in Parliament today following his announcement on Friday that England will enter a lockdown for four weeks from Thursday 5 November to Wednesday 2 December 2020.
Night shift nurses ‘most ill-served’ by hospital food facilities
An independent review of hospital food has made a number of recommendations on how NHS trusts can provide more nutritious meals to both staff and patients, as well as focus on food safety and impacts on the environment. Led by a panel of advisers and chaired by Philip Shelley, catering lead for Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, the review said staff on night shifts were among the “most ill-served” when it came to hospital food.
PHE chief nurse calls for action to protect children in second wave
The needs of children and young people were overlooked in the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, the chief nurse at Public Health England has warned. Viv Bennett said action was needed to “reverse the harm” caused to CYP due to Covid-19 going forward and called on every nurse to play a part. Speaking at the Queen’s Nursing Institute annual conference last week, Ms Bennett said most of the impacts on children and young people were “indirect” and related to lockdown and social distancing measures.
Heavy toll on minorities was result of inequality
Review has concluded that black, Asian and minority ethnic communities have suffered disproportionately during the pandemic as a result of decades of structural discrimination. Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, who led the review, said that inequalities within government, the healthcare system, and the housing, employment and education sectors meant that BAME people had been overexposed to the virus.